序

抄録

This special issue, “the Biopolitics of the Multispecies Collectives,” aims to explore possible modes of ethnographic engagements with those who strive to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. It brings together the works of anthropologists with different research backgrounds: multispecies, gender, and biopolitics. Authors agree that no single theoretical framework is enough to produce a sensible investigation of the pandemic. In this introduction to the special issue, three interrelated research fields are identified to guide inquiries over the epidemic's impacts on the more–than–human socialities: biopolitics, multispecies, and science and technology studies (STS). Furthermore, it argues, drawing on feminist ethics of care, that concerns for the vulnerability of our bodies and fragility of the world are essential features of contemporary ethnographic engagements. Guided by such concerns, the authors demonstrate how human and non–human actors are involved in rearranging troubled relationships during the pandemic in Alaska's terrains, Korean hospitals, and Japanese museums.